I need to have economic value

[LucyStoner]

By that I meant that I have no desire to substitute, tutor or run an in-home daycare. I'm good with working in the school office.

In the public school district here they have a pool of substitute office workers. They hire their permanent office workers from that pool. You could look into something like that. I know a homeschool mom with one in high school and one nearly to high school who is doing that part time and she enjoys it.

[Laura Corin]

This is probably what I should have written in my op.

 

I have no idea where to start. I've mentioned to a few key people at the school that I'd love to work there in some capacity. That would be ideal for now but that is a long shot.

 

I honestly don't know what I'd want to do if I had to pick a career to go toward. How does one do that?

 

It sounds brutal, but I approached it from the other end: what could I get a job doing without delay and expense?  I stepped into the first job (running a village post office that no one else wanted to run); did a quick, free Microsoft Office course while I was there (just to prove I could use computers - I didn't learn much); took a part-time secretarial job in an industry that I wasn't interested in with a view to getting a job three years later in my intended industry.  I am now six months into a secretarial job in a university and will work my way up within the (large and growing organisation).  Is it my ideal?  No, but I'm 53 and we need the income as well as the pension.

[HSmomof2]

I would love to talk to a career coach. I might try to find one online (no such thing in this town).

 

I was a bank teller through college and then in HR and accounts payable/receivable. If I could snap my fingers and create a job, I'd love to balance checkbooks and pay bills all day. Not that I like math, but I love making order out of chaos and seeing the numbers all balance.

It sounds like you do have an idea of what you'd like to do, and it sounds like a completely reasonable idea. You have experience (even though it's been awhile), so updating your accounting/bookkeeping skills will likely get you to the job you're looking for.

[StephanieZ]

Book keeping could actually be a pretty good PT gig if you can figure out how to get "in" with a company or two.

 

Our small business (10-14 employees) *needed* a book keeper and I went through several trying to find a decent one before just accepting fate and doing it myself until I eventually  self-trained an employee to do it. I've known other small business owners (think vets, dentists, lawyers, home repair companies, etc. Mom n Pop places with 5-20 employees.) that used a dedicated bookkeeper who came in and did the books only for 5-20 hr/wk per client. They set their own hours, came in and did the work, then left . . . The big upside of having an "outside" bookkeeper like this is that Mom n Pop businesses generally really don't want the rest of their staff to know their money business. And the bookkeeper has to see the 100k/mo cash flow and the 20k/mo to the owners . . . and the owners don't want their staff (who likely make much, much less) to see those numbers, have access to their tax returns, see payroll for ALL the staff, etc. So, it's really ideal to have an outside person who isn't involved with or friends with the rest of the staff. This means small business owners are willing to pay higher $$ for a good bookkeeper. 

 

I hired several shitty bookkeepers, then one good one (who was through our CPA firm that split up and then we lost him) . . . Bookkeeping for a small business isn't rocket science. You would have access to the business's CPA for tricky issues, and you'd do A/P, A/R, payroll prep (usually for an outside company), gather papers for the CPA at tax time, gather other papers/numbers for the CPA at various other times, etc. If you are good at organizing and handling household money, the get proficient at QB, maybe take a course or two to get some official certification, and start seeking jobs. We live in a modest COL area, and I'd have easily paid $25-40/hr for a competent, reliable, honest, discrete bookkeeper, (so 2-3x the hourly rate of our typical employees and higher than any other employee other than veterinarians) and we'd have had 8-16 hr/wk of year round work (amount depending on how much I could delegate to the bookkeeper). You could start with one client . . .

 

Anyway, that's one idea.

 

Oh, also, of course don't bother with this route if you have bad credit and/or any criminal history. No savvy business owner wants to hire someone to mess with their money that has anything other than stellar background and credit checks. 

[shage]

My advice to anyone seeking a midlife career change: Get thee to the career counselor at your local community college or university. Treat it with the same seriousness as you would helping your own child find a career.

 

Then, expect there to be a 1-3 year ramp up time before you make a decent salary. In that time period you will either be working entry level jobs or retraining. Don't expect much autonomy or decent pay. This is not some conspiracy, but rather how the job market works.

 

My other piece of advice: Network, network, network. Join professional organizations. Look for women's business associations. Anything that will connect you with people who hire or might become potential customers or clients.

Edited March 25, 2016 by shage

[Jenny in Florida]

For anyone reentering the workplace, they need to recognize that short time costs like childcare are often outpaced by pay increases over time. It's not always correct to say you loose money by working. You need to think of it as an investment and balance it. Long-term what is the investment going to look like. How does that compare to paying for a few hours of childcare.

 

Exactly.

 

Let me say again that, even knowing what I do now, I might not have chosen to do anything much differently. I certainly would not have opted to continue working full-time after we had kids just for the economic benefit. However, when I add up how much I would have made -- even assuming I never got a promotion and never got a raise beyond cost of living -- and take into account that I would now have an additional 15 years of making two or three times what I will actually make by needing to re-enter the workforce after such a long break, it would absolutely have meant an enormous financial boost for us.

 

Even cutting the total in half -- assuming that I could have worked just part-time while the kids were home and not been able to return at my full salary immediately when they moved out -- the amount of gain is pretty huge.

 

I'm glad I did it. There are intangible benefits that I value more than I do the "lost" money. But it's best to look at the reality and make an informed decision.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Jenny in Florida

[EMS83]

My question was/is "how do you figure out what to do with your life?".

 

Start with, what do you want to look back on?  What will you regret doing/not doing as you lie in a bed and reflect on you life?  What do you want to do?  Then ask, what needs doing now, and in the mid- and long-term future?  And then, what sacrifices are those goals and desires worth?  What is too much?  What is no big deal?  If you are religious, this will help you prioritize some.  When it all shakes out and burns up, will the additional income really be worth whatever sacrifices you'll all have to make as a result?  Only you and your family can answer that.

[Jenny in Florida]

It sounds brutal, but I approached it from the other end: what could I get a job doing without delay and expense? 

 

Me, too.

 

When I started having free time during the days because my son was doing his courses online and through dual enrollment, I looked for legit, flexible work-at-home jobs. I signed up to tutor online, which didn't even earn me minimum wage when you averaged out the lower rate for "wating" time with the rate I earned while actually working with a student. However, it required no expense outside of my time to apply and take the online assessments and offered me a ton of flexibilty.

 

When my son left for school a year later, I took a few hours to rework my resume to highlight the tutoring experience and shot off e-mails to every local tutoring/study skills center in a 15-mile radius. I got call backs from two, interviewed at one and was working within 10 days. I kept the online tutoring on the side, and between the two jobs worked between 15 and 25 hours a week for the next year and a half.

 

Earlier this month, I made a nice step up into a stable, part-time job with a regular schedule of 24 hours per week at 1.5 times the hourly rate I make at the tutoring center, plus paid time off and a company-funded 401K. Because the tutoring center and online job both allow me to set my own hours of availability, I can still do both of them for a few hours each, meaning I can piece together nearly full-time hours while retaining the flexbility to take off when I have family commitments. 

 

I plan to continue seeking out training and credentials so that, when my son graduates from college in a couple of years, I will be well positioned to move into a full-time job that will see me through until retirement.

 

This is not where I might have ended up if I had come at it from the other direction, figuring out what career I wanted and taking the traditional, linear steps toward getting to that point. However, I think I will be quite content on my current path, and it cost me literally nothing except my time to get here.

[2squared]

What I always think when I see stuff like this is - ihave three kids and don't work and life feels stressful crazy and like we are always running. How on earth do you add in close to work and stay sane? Ok granted I homeschool but that actually doesn't take as much time as a full time job. I probably do more cleaning because the kids are making more mess. But how does it actually look? When do you clean or cook? When do you help with homework? When do you sleep?

 

I'd love to know how it all works...

 

Thought I would come back and answer this question since my original post was quoted.

 

Here's a typical school day schedule:

6:00 Start waking up. Dh makes breakfast while I get ready.  Kids start waking up.

6:45 I take over morning routine while dh gets ready. Dishes and laundry are included here.

7:30 Everyone leaves. We either drop off kids or they bike/walk.

8:00 Parents at work

12:00 Lunch - run errands, eat lunch in peace, or work through

3:00 Kids out of school, they walk home. One of them (usually my 7yo or 14yo) gets 5yo from preschool or daycare. Older kids may have sports practices after school.

4:00/4:30 Dh home.  He starts afternoon/evening routine which includes making dinner

5:30/6:00 I'm home.  We eat dinner and clean-up (dishes)

6:30/7:00 Start homework or other evening activities

8:30 Start bedtime routine (includes more laundry)

9:00 Bedtime for kids

9:30 Bedtime for mom.  Dh often works a little in the evening.

 

Life with five kids is all about planning and coordination, whether you work or not. :)  When I went back to work, we relocated for my new job.  We purposefully chose to live within 20 minutes of work. We also purposefully chose to live within walking distance of the kids' schools.  Our daycare (where youngest ds goes on Wednesdays during school hours) is down the block.

 

Weekends are crazy with our sports schedules, but we get it all done.  We would love to have me at home, but it's not our financial reality right now.  I don't expect to be at home again since I want to pay for our kids' college education.  Paying for college becomes more and more important to me the older the kids get.

[Bluegoat]

Maybe for some families, but this certainly isn't the case for any of the families that I know. I've always worked outside the home. Right now, I work a part-time job that takes up way more than the hours that I am supposed to work. So I work, yet I also grocery shop, clean the house, cook dinner, chauffeur my kids to their activities, and help with homework. Dh works out of town most of the time, so I am typically doing all of these things myself - and we don't hire one bit of it out.

 

Now, I would be a SAHM in an instant if I could and I think there is a lot of value to being home. However, I think it is crazy to assume that working parents hire all of these jobs out. Most working moms I know are just running crazy, trying to keep things going and get things done.

 

It doesn't matter that people wouldn't pay for it to be done.  It still counts as economic value, and you can still assign monetary value to it by comparing it to what you would pay to have the same work done, if you want to be able to compare the value of the work.

 

Economic value doesn't only mean cash value.

[Ausmumof3]

Thought I would come back and answer this question since my original post was quoted.

 

Here's a typical school day schedule:

6:00 Start waking up. Dh makes breakfast while I get ready. Kids start waking up.

6:45 I take over morning routine while dh gets ready. Dishes and laundry are included here.

7:30 Everyone leaves. We either drop off kids or they bike/walk.

8:00 Parents at work

12:00 Lunch - run errands, eat lunch in peace, or work through

3:00 Kids out of school, they walk home. One of them (usually my 7yo or 14yo) gets 5yo from preschool or daycare. Older kids may have sports practices after school.

4:00/4:30 Dh home. He starts afternoon/evening routine which includes making dinner

5:30/6:00 I'm home. We eat dinner and clean-up (dishes)

6:30/7:00 Start homework or other evening activities

8:30 Start bedtime routine (includes more laundry)

9:00 Bedtime for kids

9:30 Bedtime for mom. Dh often works a little in the evening.

 

Life with five kids is all about planning and coordination, whether you work or not. :) When I went back to work, we relocated for my new job. We purposefully chose to live within 20 minutes of work. We also purposefully chose to live within walking distance of the kids' schools. Our daycare (where youngest ds goes on Wednesdays during school hours) is down the block.

 

Weekends are crazy with our sports schedules, but we get it all done. We would love to have me at home, but it's not our financial reality right now. I don't expect to be at home again since I want to pay for our kids' college education. Paying for college becomes more and more important to me the older the kids get.

Thank you, interesting. Definitely commute time, longer work days and irregular hours play into this for us. Often dh ends up working the extra hours that you work in your family and I do all the house and kid stuff that your dh helps with. It's more a different division of labour than less or more. It makes more sense for us this way as dh earns far more than I could but I can see how it works out.

[DawnM]

How old are your kids?  Your signature lists a 2 year old and a 4 year old.  Are they going to a school full time?  

[DawnM]

I get it.  I never, ever wanted to be a SAHM.  Even in our premarital counseling (required to get married in our church) I was very upfront and adamant that I intended to work, at least part time, after we had children.

 

Long story short, we have a child who needed to come home from school (Asperger's and some LDs) and so I have taken a 10 year "break."   I am now looking to go back to work.  

 

Is there anything you are interested in doing?  Could you work part time and do some sort of online program in the evenings or during the day after you get home but before the kids get home?  I know you said you don't want to work with kids, but I think a great job would be to become a media specialist (School Librarian).   The program is 100% online (graduate program) other than your supervised internship.   Here I see that job offered frequently in the school system and when I worked they offered the job if you were wiling to work towards your online degree while you worked (they were desperate, not sure if they still are.)

 

Just some thoughts since you have a degree already.

[Jenny in Florida]

It doesn't matter that people wouldn't pay for it to be done.  It still counts as economic value, and you can still assign monetary value to it by comparing it to what you would pay to have the same work done, if you want to be able to compare the value of the work.

 

Economic value doesn't only mean cash value.

 

Kind of, but if we're talking about actual economic impact on a real family's real budget, then it does "matter." 

 

Again, I feel like I need to emphasize that I'm not saying cash value is everything or even the most important thing. With the exception of an occasional foray into some part-time retail work during periods in which my husband's employment situation was dicey, I stayed home with and homeschooled my kids for 18 (19?) years. I don't regret one moment. I believe that what I did was valuable, and so do my husband and children. I know that devoting my time and energy and creativity to the ways we chose to raise and educate our kids and run our household helped to significantly defray the cost of having one of us at home for those years. 

 

But, in real dollars, for this real family, we definitely sacrificed a lot of my economic value in the process. And this was true not just for the years in which I was home but for the long term, because my earning power now that the kids are done with me is significantly reduced from what it would have been if I had kept working and will likely never catch up.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Jenny in Florida

[Bluegoat]

Kind of, but if we're talking about actual economic impact on a real family's real budget, then it does "matter." 

 

Again, I feel like I need to emphasize that I'm not saying cash value is everything or even the most important thing. With the exception of an occasional foray into some part-time retail work during periods in which my husband's employment situation was dicey, I stayed home with and homeschooled my kids for 18 (19?) years. I don't regret one moment. I believe that what I did was valuable, and so do my husband and children. I know that devoting my time and energy and creativity to the ways we chose to raise and educate our kids and run our household helped to significantly defray the cost of having one of us at home for those years. 

 

But, in real dollars, for this real family, we definitely sacrificed a lot of my economic value in the process. And this was true not just for the years in which I was home but for the long term, because my earning power now that the kids are done with me is significantly reduced from what it would have been if I had kept working and will likely never catch up.

 

All of which is fine, but it isn't a very accurate way of using the term "economic value" which is why people kept saying yes, that work has economic value.

 

In the same way we can talk about the economic value of, say, a swamp for filtering water by comparing it to the cost of doing it technologically.  We probably aren't actually planning to do that, but it is a real measure of value, and it is economic value within the economic system.

[MomatHWTK]

I have mentioned writing because I have actually been able to make quite a bit since I started freelance writing. I  have a solid background in research. So I apply that to write on general topics- whatever the client needs. I think it is a great job for homeschoolers because we usually know how to use proper grammar and research online.  ;)